The 2011 Summer Tour brings about a renewed encounter with two distinguished artists of our time. Following the 2008 Summer Tour, Sir Colin Davis returns to the podium of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER for the second time. At his side is Susan Graham, the American mezzo-soprano who is a regular and sought-after guest on all important stages of the world; her first tour with the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER was in the summer of 2006.

Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, Ravel: Shéhérazade and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony will be heard at four concerts, starting with performances during the long-standing residency partnership at Bolzano, followed by the Semperoper at Dresden – as every year by invitation of the Staatskapelle Dresden – and finally at the BBC Proms in London.

In advance to these highlights, David Afkham, who has been Assistant Conductor of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER since 2009 and who was the first recipient of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award (YCA) in 2010, will perform Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto together with the solo clarinetist of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER, Aljaž Beguš. The programme of this special concert also includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 5.

In addition, the new collaboration between the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER and the Salzburg Festival that was established in 2010 will continue with an eagerly anticipated special concert on August 13, 2011, at which the orchestra will play under the baton of this year’s winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award.